


Timing

by birdflashshipper (kateshines)



Category: DCU, DCU (Comics), Young Justice (Cartoon), Young Justice (Comics), Young Justice - All Media Types
Genre: Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, Birdflash - Freeform, Fix-it fic, Fluff, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, dickwally
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-12
Updated: 2017-04-13
Packaged: 2018-10-18 03:25:58
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,685
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10608315
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kateshines/pseuds/birdflashshipper
Summary: “I hate that this is how we have to talk to each other now. Late at night, when everyone else is asleep, like we are hiding something dirty. The way I feel about you, Dick – the love I feel for you – it isn’t dirty. It’s pure. It’s beautiful and pure and fucking perfect, okay?” He choked on a sob. “It’s not this… this taboo, filthy, cheating thing that it is right now.” He sighed shakily, and after a moment, “I just… I loveher, too.”Dick’s puffy red eyes blinked slowly as he absorbed the words. “I understand.” And he did. He really did. He just wished things were different.A drunken night leads to the boys confessing their feelings for each other, but Wally has Artemis and Dick has Babs. Two years later, though, things change.





	1. Lips of an Angel

**Author's Note:**

> I wrote this fic based on the song “Lips of an Angel” by Hinder. It is one of my all-time favorite songs. But it’s also the one song that makes me cry every fucking time I listen to it. So, because I am weird and like to challenge myself with really difficult writing exercises, I made myself write a fic about it. I liked what came out. But then, I was all depressed and my eyes were all red and puffy, and I had to fix it somehow. So, I give you: this.
> 
> I mostly wrote this for myself to get myself out of my depressed funk – and hey, good news; I now get warm fuzzy feelings when I hear Lips of an Angel, because I get to remember the fluffy-happy ending that I wrote for this song! I mostly wrote this for myself as a weird, elaborate type of therapy, but hopefully some of my readers can get some enjoyment out of it too.
> 
> Thanks for reading!

_Dick pressed his lips up against Wally's in desperation, tears streaming down his face, kissing him for all he was worth. Because he knew that when he pulled his lips away, the rejection would come immediately after. He wanted to prolong the inevitable for as long as he could. Because when he got his rejection, it would be final. There would be no more "what-if" scenarios left to play out in his head._

_He would have his answer._

_Wally kissed him back with equal fervor, returning every ounce of fire Dick was giving him, until Dick pulled away for air. Wally pressed his forehead up against Dick's, squeezing his eyes shut and sucking in a pained breath._

_"Dick."_

_"I know," he replied immediately, closing his eyes against the stream of tears._

_"We can't."_

_"I know."_

_"You're with Babs."_

_"And you're with Artemis."_

_They both sat there, clutching each other, eyes squeezed shut against the harsh reality they knew they eventually had to face. "I wish you would have said something sooner," Wally murmured._

_"Me too," Dick choked out._

_"If things were different..."_

_"But they're not," Dick spat bitterly._

_Both men looked at each other with pain in their eyes before they simultaneously pulled away, wiping away their tears, turning away from each other and walking in opposite directions down the hall._

  
Dick woke up from his dream in a cold sweat.

He had been having the same dream for two months. Two months, night after night, reliving that awful mistake that he had made; the awful mistake that ended their friendship. Dick sat up in bed, wiping his tear-streaked face with the back of his hand and, in a moment of weakness, reached for his phone.

 __  
__ The moment Dick pressed speed dial 1, he knew Wally would hear him crying. He knew Wally could hear his shuddering breaths and the roughness in his voice.

Dick almost didn't expect him to answer, and if he did, he didn't expect him to comment on it. Of course though, he did. “Dick… Why are you crying? Is everything okay?”

Wally’s voice. His familiar voice. It felt like returning home after a long mission stole him away, only to know that he would have to leave again in the morning.

Bittersweet.

A painful silence followed as Dick struggled to steady his breathing enough for clear speech. “Wally… I miss you.”

“I miss you too.”

“I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have even called you, Wally, I, I just...”

A long sigh.

To his credit, it had been two months since they had last spoken. That night in the hallway, he had wanted to turn around and grab Wally by the wrist and tell him that he'd give up everything for him - Barbara, the team, being a vigilante - but he hadn't. He had wanted to call Wally every day since then, but he had stopped himself each and every time. It had taken him two entire months to break down and call. That was an accomplishment in and of itself.

“It… it’s good to hear from you, Dick. It feels good to… to hear you say my name. Your voice… It just…” he sighed again, something between relief and pain. “It’s just... nice to hear your voice.”

"Yeah. Yours too." Another pause as Dick worked up the courage to ask his next question. “Is… is she there?”

They both knew who ‘she’ was. Hesitation filled his voice, but they both knew Wally would never lie to Dick. “Yeah. Arty, she’s asleep… she’s is in the bedroom.”

“You left your room… so she can’t hear us?”

“…Yeah.”

“Okay.”

There was an awkward silence before Dick spoke again.

“How... how are you?”

Wally was so tired - not just sleepy-tired, but the kind of tired where he felt drained down to the very caverns of his soul, the kind of tired that only came from years of longing ending in a painful separation - that his filter was gone. This was Dick – his Dick – talking to him. For the first time in months. His guard was unusually low to begin with, especially considering the life of deception and secret identities he had came from, so in that moment, he was an open book. “Sometimes I wish she was you.”

A pregnant silence permeated the line.

“We… we could…”

Wally cut him off. “I can’t imagine my life without Artemis,” Wally murmured. “I love her. But… gods, Dickie, your voice. I never really got any closure, you know? I… we never…” Dick could hear Wally start to choke up. “I never want to say goodbye to her, but gods, it’s just… it’s so hard to…”

Wally let his voice trail off.

Dick’s reply was quiet, barely audible. “I understand.”

And he did. He didn't expect anything to come of his call.

“Dick, I… I wish I…” Dick felt his lips curled into a wry smile against the phone as he listened to Wally, because he could practically see him running his hand through his red hair like he always does when he’s thinking too much. “I wish you knew how torn up inside I am. How messed up I’ve been over this. Just… knowing you a-actually return my feelings… that I’ve had for so long, and not being able to...” he sniffed. “It’s just… really bad timing, you know? I… I wish we could have figured it out sooner… If only-”

“I know.” Dick cut him off. All of the words Wally was saying had been echoing around inside his head for the past three months.

If only Dick had confessed sooner.  
If only Wally had confessed too.  
If only Wally weren’t with Artemis.  
If only their lives weren’t so damn complicated.

Slipping out of his reverie, Dick asked, “Does she know?”

“About us?”

“Yeah.”

“…No.”

Dick's heart fell. If she knew, then at least something might happen. If she knew, then she might leave him. If she knew, then…

“Does… does Babs?”

“…Yeah.”

Another pause. “Really? You told her?”

“Yeah. I told her.”

A longer pause. “When?”

“When I broke up with her.”

He could hear Wally’s shaky breath on the other end of the line. “What? When did you break up with her?”

“A week ago.”

“Oh Dick, I’m… I’m so sorry.”

“I… I don’t expect you to do the same. It’s different, with you and Artemis. I know that.”

Wally sniffled. “I know. I just… I’m just so sorry, Dick. You have no idea. I wish I wasn’t causing you this pain. I hate this,” Wally said between sobs. “I hate that this is how we have to talk to each other now. Late at night, when everyone else is asleep, like we are hiding something dirty. The way I feel about you, Dick – the love I feel for you – it isn’t dirty. It’s pure. It’s beautiful and pure and fucking perfect, okay?” He choked on a sob. “It’s not this… this taboo, filthy, cheating thing that it is right now. You were my first love, Dick. My very first. I was in love with you before I even knew how to put words to what I was feeling. That’s the purest kind of love, god damnit, and you know what? I never got over that. Even now, so many fucking years later, I still love you exactly the same. No matter how many years passed, no matter how hard I tried to push it away, my feelings never faded.” He sighed shakily, and after a moment, “I just… I love her, too.”

Dick’s puffy red eyes blinked slowly as he absorbed the words. “I understand.”

And he did. He really did.

“I should go, Wally. I… It’s late. I should get to bed.”

He heard Wally shuffling around awkwardly. “Yeah. I… I should get back to sleep, too.”

After a long pause, through poorly-concealed sobs, “I love you.”

Wally broke down all over again. “I love you too, Dick. And I always will. Please, never forget that.”

Wally could hear him sobbing on the other end of the line until Dick finally hung up the phone.


	2. Heaven

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Dick hadn't spoken to Wally in two years. That’s why he was so shocked when Wally showed up, at two o’clock in the afternoon on a Tuesday, on the front step of his safe house in Bludhaven.

Dick doesn't speak to Wally for another two years.

The pain he felt over Wally began to subside over time. Not that he was over Wally completely, because he definitely wasn’t – late at night when nobody else was around, after he had had one too many drinks and he was lying face-down on his pillow, he would admit it to himself in the confines of his own head…

_I still love him._

It was always in the back of his mind, but he didn't let himself dwell on it. But he didn’t date anyone, either. He had few casual flings, sure – a couple of one-night stands, but nothing serious. He honestly never had the urge to get serious with anyone after he broke up with Babs. After he confessed his feelings for Wally.

Over those two years, he had heard snippets of Wally’s life from mutual friends. He had graduated from Stanford, got a job with STAR labs, and was working on his PhD – but Wally living a civilian life meant that he didn’t really run with Dick’s circle anymore. Nobody ever had any news about the state of Wally’s relationship with Artemis, and Dick never asked. Honestly, he didn’t want to know. He heard bits and pieces of Wally’s life in passing over the years, but never once in two years had he heard from Wally himself. He had honestly started to assume he never would.

That’s why he was so shocked when Wally showed up, at two o’clock in the afternoon on a Tuesday, on the front step of his safe house in Bludhaven.

  
Dick opened the door, and his first thought was that he was dreaming.

Unruly red hair. Deep green eyes. Broad shoulders. Strong legs in well-fitted jeans. Toned abs, the outlines of which were visible beneath his tight Under Armor shirt. A runner’s body, if he’s ever seen one. The same man he had been dreaming about at least once a week for the past two years.

But then he looked closer and noticed that a few things had changed since then. He had a few more wrinkles in the corners of his eyes – smile lines, he noted in the back of his mind. His face had thinned out attractively and appeared more angular. His shoulders had broadened. He had gotten a little taller.

But the biggest difference was in his eyes. Same color as ever – green, so deep you could drown in them, with little flecks of gold near the iris. But there was a different feel to them now. Maturity, wisdom; the kind of wisdom that came from seeing more of the world and starting to figure out your place in it. For lack of a better term, it looked like he had seen some shit.

Dick’s jaw dropped as it sank in that this Wally wasn’t the Wally from his dreams; this Wally was _real_. His brain grasped at the first coherent sentence it could find, which was, “How did you even find me?”

Wally chuckled nervously, which was familiar and terrifying all at the same time. “I… I ran from Central to Gotham and marched up to Bruce’s office and demanded that he tell me where to find you.”

Dick couldn’t help himself – he laughed. He actually laughed at that. It was some bizarre combination of elation at hearing his voice again – his sweet, once-familiar voice – and the absurdity of the mental image of Wally storming through Wayne Enterprises to ask a billionaire executive where to find him. “Seriously?”

Wally at least had the decency to grin sheepishly. “I checked seven safe houses before I came to this one. Did anyone ever explain the meaning of ‘overkill’ to you? Are you sure you need _eight_ safe houses?”

Dick found his heart fluttering at Wally’s banter, so achingly familiar. “I have eleven, actually. It doesn’t hurt to overprepare. But seriously, not that this isn’t a nice surprise, but what are you doing here?”

Dick’s eyes never left Wally’s face, so he didn’t miss the way his Adam’s apple bobbed as he swallowed nervously. “I… I guess I just… needed to talk to you.” And all over again, Dick felt those feelings welling up – a rush of bittersweet love and sadness. He shook his head with a sad smile and held the door open, welcoming him inside.

His safe house was small, but efficient. He wasn’t there very often so at least it was moderately clean. He ushered Wally to the kitchen table, which was pretty much the only seating area in the small flat. “Do you want something to drink? I don’t have much.” He dug through the fridge. “I have… water, beer and rum.” He suddenly chuckled at himself. “It’s pretty obvious that I’m single, isn’t it?” He pulled the rum and beer out of the refrigerator. “Feel like a mid-day drink?”

He turned back towards Wally when he didn’t get a response, and stopped cold when he saw the look on his estranged friend’s face. His expression was open and raw – pained yet hopeful. “Walls? What’s up?”

“Are you?”

Dick blinked at him. “Am I what?”

“Single. You said ‘it’s obvious I’m single’. Is that… is that true? Are you actually single?”

A sharp jolt of pain hit Dick’s heart. “Wally, I haven’t dated anyone since… since we…”

Dick didn’t have to elaborate. Wally knew what he was referencing.

He seemed to suddenly notice that Dick stood with a beer in one hand and bottle of rum in the other. “I… I’ll take a beer, if you’re offering.”

Dick nodded and handed him a beer. He grabbed one for himself as well before shutting the refrigerator and settling across from Wally at the table.

His voice was surprisingly steady considering how nervous he felt. “So. What’s this about?”

“I… I wanted to come here. To talk to you.”

Dick nodded slightly, and he internally patted himself on the back for maintaining his composure so well. “You’re here. We’re talking. What’s up?”

Wally inhaled deeply, seemingly unsure where to start, and then stated very simply, “Artemis and I broke up.”

Dick... didn’t quite know how to respond to that. He was still aghast at the fact that Wally had shown up at his safehouse (which was supposed to be a SECRET safehouse, so thanks for keeping it confidential, _Bruce_ ) unannounced. “Uh… I’m sorry to hear that? When did that happen?”

“Five and a half months ago.”

Dick nodded gently. “Why… why did you break up, if you don’t mind me asking?”

“The short version of the story? She wanted to move across the country. To New York. And… I didn’t.”

“And… the long version of the story?” Dick asked hesitantly.

Wally ran his fingers through his hair, sighing deeply. Dick felt oddly reassured that he still did that when he was stressed. Like maybe all this time hadn’t changed his Wally _too_ much. “There were… a lot of reasons we broke up, actually. I think we are both just very different people, and I was too afraid to see it because we had been together for so long. She started to pressure me to get engaged, and I kinda realized that I wasn’t willing to take that step with her. Like, ever. So I decided I had to break it off. Save us both the pain of dragging it out any longer.”

That still didn’t entirely answer his question. “Okay… so why did you come here, of all places?”

Wally seemed to expect the query, because he looked Dick straight in the eye and responded evenly. “I took some time to figure myself out after we broke up. I moved out and signed a six-month lease in this really shitty place in Keystone. Like, REALLY shitty, Dick. A one-bedroom shithole.” He paused to chuckle, shaking his head. “I just needed a place away from everything to get my mind together, you know? Just… sort myself out. I was with Artemis for a LONG time – most of my adolescence and into adulthood, really, so I needed to figure out who I was outside of it.” He met Dick’s gaze, and held it. “Who I am going to be, and what I’m going to do, for the rest of my life.”

Dick let out a breath he hadn’t realized he was holding. “Wow. So, uh… what brought you here?”

Wally made eye contact with Dick and held it. “You did.”

Dick sputtered at the blunt statement. “What?”

“You did, Dick. I came here for you. To be with you. If… if you have moved on, I understand. It’s been two years since we’ve even talked...” He let out a shaky breath. “I would understand if you don’t want to, or if you have gotten over me, or… or whatever. I know it’s been a long time since I’ve seen you and I don’t know where you’re at or what you have going on in your life right now, I just… I just wanted to put it out there. If there’s any chance at all, like at _all_ that we could work out, I have to take it.”

“Why now?” the words left Dick’s mouth before he registered them. “Why wait six months?”

“Five and a half,” Wally corrected. “And honestly? Waiting sucked. It fucking _sucked_ , Dick. I wanted to run to you the moment I broke up with her, but I refused to entertain the idea of you being my rebound. I wanted to do some soul-searching. Some real, deep soul-searching, before we do this. Because if we do this, I want it to be for real, Dick. I want it to be forever.” He paused, trying to measure Dick’s facial expression. When he didn’t get a response, he elaborated, “And it’s important that you know it’s been five and a half months because my six-month lease is up in two weeks, and then I am moving to Gotham.”

“…What? What about your job?”

“Gotham has a branch of Star labs. I already arranged the whole thing. My start date is three weeks from today, so I’ll have a week to get settled in.”

Dick was dumbfounded. He gaped at Wally, not even knowing what to say.

“I want to do this, Dick.” He suddenly stood up, the chair scraping across the hardwood floor as he rushed to Dick’s side, kneeling before him with desperation in his eyes. “I want to be with you. I want to do this for real. The whole boring, domestic bliss thing? I want it. With you. Spending all weekend cuddling on the couch and watching crappy action movies, letting you hog the bed at night, stitching you up after a nasty patrol, fighting over how you load the dishwasher wrong. The whole thing. I want all of it. I want all of… all of _you_.”

Dick stared at Wally for a long moment; a moment that felt like an eternity to the speedster. Dick's eyes searched his face, his mouth opening slightly in a frown, as if trying to decipher some hidden code in Wally's expression. The moment stretched on for so long that Wally’s heart had dropped and his gaze fell to the floor, tears beginning to well up in his eyes, fearing the worst.

And then, Dick kissed him.

Wild and raw and completely ungraceful, Dick pulled him in to mash his mouth against his own. It took Wally a moment to recognize what was happening before he was eagerly kissing him back, wrapping his arms around the younger man and pulling him off the chair and into his lap before falling backwards to the floor.

Tears streamed down both of their cheeks as they kissed, all of their pent-up feelings spilling over. Dick was on his hands and knees above Wally, pressing up as close to Wally as he could get, because _finally_ there weren’t any barriers between them – no other relationships, no distance, no unresolved feelings. Nothing.

Eventually their lungs began to burn and they had to pull away, and Wally reached up to wipe away Dick’s tears, pulling his forehead to Wally’s, cradling his cheek in his warm hand. “I still love you, Dick. I love you, with every fucking molecule in my body, and I want to be with you for real. Do you want to do this?”

Dick nodded, sniffing, blinking away a fresh wave of tears, and cried out “ _Yes_.” Wally let out a choked sob, his eyes puffy and red, and pulled Dick down on top of him in a crushing hug.

  
That’s where Bruce found them, forty-five minutes later – on the kitchen floor, asleep, tangled in each other’s arms, eyes puffy and cheeks stained with dried tears, but with blissful smiles on both of their faces.

He leaned against the door frame, a small smile on his face as well. He had been keeping tabs on the boy, after all, and knew that Wally had broken up with the archer-girl about six months prior and his lease on his apartment in Keystone was about to expire. When the redhead had rushed into his office with a trail of lightning behind him, the fire of determination in his eyes and demanding to know where Dick was, Bruce had put two and two together.

It had been a long time coming, and Bruce had almost begun to believe it would never happen. He had known since Dick was twelve years old that he was in love with the speedster. And now, ten years later, here they were.

Bruce’s heart felt lighter than it had in years, uplifted with the knowledge that Wally would take good care of his son. If anyone deserved this fairytale ending, it was Dick.

There would be plenty of time for him to question both boys about what that meant for their future, but for now, he would let them just enjoy each other.

He smiled as he silently backed out of the apartment, closing the door and locking it behind him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading, everyone! I might add more chapters if there is enough interest. If not, I might just leave it where it is!
> 
> Leave me some love in the form of a comment. It helps me get through the day!


End file.
